Burglar-proof safe.



J. H. HOWARD. BURGLAR PROOF SAFE. APPLICATION 11,211 AUG. 24, 1910.

Patented June 18, 1912.

0O 0 0 D 0 DO 000000000000 0 0 0 0 D D D 0n b 0 0 0 D 0 B 00 000 a specification.

i9 and 10 are detail sectional views of elencense.

.Medford, in the county of Middlesex and .in safes designed to provide extraordinary providing in the interior of the safe-a box the impact of hammer blows and the action gases generated by any explosive which showing modified forms of construction ing the same resistant both to the action of .which is otherwise of ordinary construction,

1 l. s r

' {Arms H. Howssn, or transom), MASSACHUSETTS.

BURGLAR-PROOF SAFE.

To all whom it mag/ concern:

Be it known that I, Janus H. HOWARD, of

Statecf Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Burglar-Proof Safes, of which the followingis This invention relates to an improvement security against unlawful access to the contents of the safe, and more particularly is an improvement on and extension of the invention covered in my prior Patent No. 819,430, dated May 1,1906. I

Briefly stated the invention consists in orcage of material designed to resist both of cutting tools, and one, or more sides of which are vented to permit free escape of may be put into the safe.

.In the accompanying drawings 1 have illustrated several forms in which my in-' vention may be practically embodied, and the mode of its use, although without at tempting to show all possible modifications or constructions which may be made within the scope and spirit of the invention, or all the modes in which it may be used. Merely a suilicientshowing is made to illustrate the principles of the invention and to illustrate the fact that these principles may be embodied in many forms.

In the drawings Figure 1 represents a my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the vented inner box or Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the safe with the cage in place. Figs. 4, 5, 6 'and'7 are views of the whole or parts of the cage. Figs. 8,

ments or bars from which the cage may be constructed, illustrating the mode of male cutting tools and the impact of hammer blows.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

The improvement forming the subject matter of the present invention consists of abox or cage a adapted to be set inside of a safe,

specification of Letters Eatent: Patented s 18;

Application filed August 24,

1910. Serial No. 578,647.

and to be immovably secured therein by being wholly or partially embedded in the cement filling of the safe walls, where cement is used, or of being secured by bolts, lugs or the like, suitably secured to the cage and embedded in the cement filling. In Fig. 1 the cement filling of the safe walls is represented at b, and is surrounded by the usual metal plates (2 forming the outer Walls, and the angle irons e which bind the corners of the same. of the safe is represented by 0.

-. The cage is vented in one or more of its walls, such walls or sides being made as a grille work or perforated plates or thelilie, having openings or vents of such size as-"to permit the gases generated by explosion of a charge of powder or dynamite to pass freely through them without injurious effect, while being at the same time small enough to prevent removal of the valuables from thesrfe after the outer walls thereof may have been blown open by the explosion.

My object is not to construct a safe incapable of being blown open, for such resu t is not practically possible with portable safes adapted for oilice use, but to provide a protected safe having an inner lining which remains int-act after the outer walls may have been opened by explosives, owing to the fact that the vents in the lining perniit free escape of the gases generated-by explosion and so prevent rupture thereof.

l.he'lining however is so firmly attached to A door at the front the walls of the safe that, although an opening may be efi ected through the outer walls, it will be impossible in the limited time at the command of the burglar, after producing. an explosion, to remove and carry off the cage bodily. The cage is, also, constructed of members composed in part of material so ductile as to be uninjured by impact of hammer blows, and in part of 1naterial too hard to be cut by saws, chisels or the like, and which, although consequently brittle, is so intimately and continuously united 'to the ductile material, that it cannot be broken away therefrom. Thus I propose to make the vented walls of the cage out of bars composed of alternate strips 7 and. g of high carbon steel and low carbon steel or iron welded together, as shownin Fig. 8, or of a tubular envelop of ductile hon steel, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10, the lattenfigure showing, merely a prismatic form of bar rather than a circular forncuas shown in the other figures. The vented walls of the cage may be made, of such bars welded or otherwise securely attached together to form a network, or one or more walls of, the cage may be made of laminated plates having a composite structure similar to that illustrated in Fig. 8 of alternate layers of hard and soft steel.

I propose to use a cage constructed. as thus defined, either in connection with the vented inner door illustrated and described in my prior patent referred to,'.or without such innerdoor. In the latter case the cage will have one open side directed toward the doorway of the safe, and the safe as a whole will then be purposely so constructed that it is weaker at some'other point than at the connection between. the doors and the sides, top and bottom.- A safe so protected may designedly be made weak in its outer portion so that a charge of powder will readily burst open the outer walls and make its escape through the vents of the guard, without injuring the latter. The guard, although then exposed, is able to defy the attacks of the burglar by reason of its composite structure which resists both hammer blows and cutting tools, and is so securely anchored'to the heavy parts of the safe that itcannot be bodily carried away.

The cage as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 5, is designed to be wholly or partially embedded in the cement filling of the safe walls, and the sides thereof are made into a unitary structure;

Fig. 6 shows a construction in which each wall of the cage may be independent of the others, consisting of a frame it, to which rods for forming a grille may be attached by welding or otherwise, or it. may be a continuous plate having perforations. These frames or plates are each provided with lugs 2' projecting outwardly so that they may be embedded deeply and firmly in the cement filling of the safe and the several plates or frames to form the complete cage are assembled, within the corresponding walls of the safe to make a continuous cagev In Fig. 4: is shown frame made as a casting with which several of the sides may be integrally cast, and to which their vented sides may be secured by welding or otherwise. Walls such as shown in Fig. 7' may be provided in a' cage shown in Fig. 4. (Eertain of these walls may be continuous plates such as the plate j, and one or more of the walls may be per vforated. plates as the plate 70. i

In Fig. 5 is shown a framework for a inner cage made ofrcss Z bent to form the bounding edges of the cage, and having eyes at their end portions embracing other rods at the corners.

havinga frame as The rods forming the grilled sides of the cage, or the perforated plates, are adapted to be assembled within these binding rods, or otherwise suitably secured thereto.

For the purpose of assembling Walls such as shown in Fig. 6 together for forming a cage, or for attaching such walls to a frame, I provide the walls with lugs 2", in which are apertures 71 for the reception of rivets or other fas'tenings, the overlapping edges of adjacent walls or the members of a frame. Similarly the plates 9' and shown in Fig. 7 have apertures j and It" to receive rivets passing through holes. 3' and 7c? in the bars of the frame shown in Fig. 4. The rivets may be of material similar to that from which the bars of the cage are made, or other material, and when the cage is in place in the safe, these fastenings are so to a safe-breaker, and so cannot be removed.

l. claim,-

1. In combination with a safe having continuous fire-proof walls, a vented lining contained within the to sides of the safe.

2. In combination with tinuous fire-proof walls, a burglar proof vented inner cage forming five sides of a parallelepiped and set into the interior of the safe.

3. A safe having a door adapted .tohe secured in closed position and beingconstructed so that the fastening between the door and walls of the safe is stronger thanthe weakest portion of the safe, and a burglarresisting inner cage set within the safe and having an open side toward the door, said cage being constructed with. vents, so as to permit escape through its vents of gases generated by explosives, est point of the safe will fail and the cage with the door may form a complete burglarproof container for valuables.

l. In a safe an outer shell of material refractory to heat a cage set within the interior thereof, and lining the top, bottom, back and sides, said cage having one or more of its walls vented to permit free escape of the gases or an explosive charge, and being constructed of material resistant to shock and cutting tools.

A safe having walls and a door of fire proof material including a'filling of cement or similar material, and a lining for said safe comprising a box or cage-like structure of material resistant to shock and cutting tools, embedded to a greater or less extent which also pass through.

embedded ,in the j I filling of the safe that they are inaccessible bottom, back and whereby the wcaln 1 in the cement, and being vented to permit escape of the gases of explosive compounds.

6. The combinationwith a safe havlng impervious incloslng outer Walls, an inner burglar-proof cage forming a lining for the safe and having sides, back, top and bottom metal placed in intimate contact, whereby 10 of openwork construction and permanently to resist breaking and cutting.

united to one another as by Welding, the Intestim'ony whereof I have affixed my parts of said cage having vents whereby the signature, inpresence of two Witnesses.

gases enerated by combustion of explosive i COII1P01I1dS may escape Without harming the JAMES A ca e, although destroying the outer Walls, Witnesses: an the members of which the cage is com- ARTH R H. B OWN, posed being formed of both hard and ductile i P. WV. PEzzE'L'rI. 

